Bloody Loot
by LianneZ4
Summary: Mozzie stares at the treasure. It's time to wrap things up. AU to episode 3.09  On the Fence


**Bloody Loot **

Mozzie stares at the Nazi plunder in front of him.

Oh, he doesn't speak about it this way. Aloud, it's always been "the treasure", "the biggest score", or the best one, "our art". Mozzie knew that even if Neal didn't really care for the money or the island, he would have a hard time resisting anything labeled "art".

The cold, hard truth is that all the stuff is stolen bloody loot, robbed from museums and people during one of the most violent periods in human history. Another cold, hard truth is that Moz simply doesn't care.

It's one of the things that set him and Neal apart, Moz thinks. When he first met Neal Caffrey, the boy was almost like an overgrown kid. He thought the world belonged to him, and when Neal robbed banks and people, he genuinely believed he had the right to take all the priceless shiny things if he was clever enough to get away with it. Mozzie knew that wasn't true, he knew they were just two criminals making their way through the world. However, he became fond of Neal because of his innocence and his bold daring nature, despite the fact that it often put both of them in danger.

But Moz has never lost the true perspective about the two of them; two conmen and thieves on their way for the grand prize, almost certainly bound to fail, but never about to give up anyway.

With a shake of his head, Moz opens the small case he has brought with him and takes out a gun. He carefully disassembles it before he picks up the cleaning cloth and starts working on the barrel.

First, it all went down when Neal was arrested. He never should have told his friend about Kate – but then Mozzie knew that if Neal found out that he had known Kate's location and kept it from him, their friendship could have easily been over. So he took the calculated risk and made Neal promise to be careful – not that it did either of them any good.

Eventually though, it would have been okay, if only Neal hadn't tried to escape and hadn't got caught again. What's worse – Moz knows Neal could have survived another four years in prison, thought it would have probably hardened him and made him cynical. No, the real problem was Neal's deal with the FBI, or more exactly, one Agent Peter Burke.

Mozzie loads the bullets into the magazine and then puts it back into the gun. It has been a while since he last held one – seven years, to be exact. Unlike Neal, he isn't an expert marksman, but he can do the necessary thing to protect the people he cares about. Still, he knew Neal could never find out how far he went once or twice to cover both of their asses.

It was Peter Burke who changed everything. He robbed Neal of a lot of his carefree attitude; first by putting him in prison, then by trying to turn him into his pet-suit lapdog. While Mozzie genuinely likes El, he could really, _really_ do without the Suit – though for Neal's sake, he pretended to get along with him. Now he wonders why he bothered.

The Suit should have taught Neal to be more careful, something Mozzie has unfortunately failed to do in all their years together. Instead, to Mozzie's horror, he started filling Neal with morals – the useless kind of morals, not those that are necessary if one wanted to keep the hit men off his back. A conman shouldn't care about the mark, he should care about not getting caught. Still, Mozzie tolerated it, because he knew he would get Neal back to normal once he finally cut the tracker, or in the worse case, once his sentence was finally over. Moz was patient. He could wait.

He puts on the silencer and mentally goes over the process again before he confirms everything is indeed in perfect order. Good.

The Nazi plunder sits there packed in the crates, looking perfectly innocent, almost as if it's making fun of him. It's dirty, stained money, and Mozzie has never cared. He is still going to grab it and use it, even now that it has cost him his best – and sometimes only – friend.

It's all the Suit's fault, thinks Moz viciously. If only he didn't snoop so much, if he didn't infest Neal with stupid boundaries, they could have been long ago away on the island and none of this would have happened. Keller never would have found out about the loot, he never would have killed Hale and Mozzie wouldn't have ordered the hit men to kill him. Without Keller, Raquel Laroque would have no reason to shoot in Neal's direction.

It's _all the Suit's fault_ that Neal bled out from the gaping wound to his chest.

Mozzie has already sold another few paintings, together worth about twenty million. He doesn't care about the FBI anymore; that was always mostly Neal's concern. He knows that with enough money, he can buy silence, and silence means that he will never be found or extradited once he leaves the US forever. He has already put the prize on Raquel's head and doubled the amount for Keller – though he doesn't trust the shooters to do a proper job anymore, hence his own gun. Today, he's taking revenge on Keller, and then he's gone to the island and life of luxury.

Mozzie stares at the Nazi loot in front of him.

The Nazi plunder sits there in the crates, looking completely harmless and innocent.

It's covered with Neal's blood, and it almost looks like it's mocking him.

Mozzie conceals the gun and steps out of the plane to settle his score in New York before disappearing forever.

* * *

><p><em>AN: Thanks to my beta GrayWolf84 who helped immensely with the improvement of this story._


End file.
